The Scream is the debut studio album by English post-punk band Siouxsie and the Banshees. Recorded in one week and mixed in three during August 1978, it was released on 13 November 1978 by record label Polydor.

Before the album's release, the band had developed a strong reputation as a live act, and had achieved a Top 10 UK single with "Hong Kong Garden" (which did not appear on the original album); upon release The Scream became an almost instant critical and commercial success, peaking at number 12 in the UK Albums Chart, and placing the group amongst the pioneers of post-punk. The album is now regarded as a landmark of post-punk.

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In late 1977 and early 1978, the band received major press coverage but they didn't manage to get a recording deal. A fan undertook a graffiti campaign in London, spraying the walls of the major record companies with the words "Sign the Banshees: do it now".[1] Polydor finally signed them in June.[2]

John McKay had become their guitarist in July 1977; music historian Clinton Heylin argues that the recruitment of McKay along with the formation of Magazine and PiL between August 1977 and May 1978 marks the "true starting-point for English post-punk".[3]

The Scream was recorded in one week during August 1978, and mixed in three weeks.[4] The band was in the studio while their debut single "Hong Kong Garden" was released, reaching number seven in the UK Singles Chart.[5][6]

Most of the songs were co-written with McKay. Only "Carcass" dates from the band's time with Peter Fenton, their guitarist from January to July 1977.[7] Siouxsie wanted the Banshees' music to be "cinematic"; Bernard Herrmann's score to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho inspired the music of "Suburban Relapse", where the guitars echo the knife-screeching violins of the famous shower scene.[8]

The Scream was released on 13 November 1978. It was an almost instant commercial success, peaking at number 12 on the UK Albums Chart.[9]

The Scream was reissued in the UK on 27 October 2005 (28 October in the USA) as part of Universal's Deluxe Edition series. The new edition featured a remastered version of the album on the first disc, while the second disc contained demo and live tracks together with the singles from that period. A single-disc edition of the reissue was released in 2006 with a noticeable digital distortion; a flawless remastered version was issued in its place in 2007.

Upon its release, The Scream received almost unanimously positive reviews. Critics in the British and American press generally agreed that the album was a landmark of its time and that the band's willingness to experiment made it a challenging listen.

The Scream was hailed as "the best debut album of the year" by Sounds.[13] Critic Peter Silverton gave the album 5 stars out of 5.[12] The other reviews were also very positive. Melody Maker described the sound as "strong, abrasive, visceral and constantly inventive, with a thrust that makes the spaces equal partners to the notes", with the critic comparing the album's textures to that of Wire and Pere Ubu.[14]ZigZag qualified it as a "magnificent record", with reviewer Kris Needs writing: "I can't think of another group who could have made an LP so uncompromising, powerful and disturbing, yet so captivating and enjoyable [...] It is certainly a special classic to join milestones like [David Bowie's] Diamond Dogs, Roxy [Music]'s first and [Lou Reed's] Berlin. This is music of such strength and vision that you just can't not be moved by the time they swing into the final climactic passage of 'Switch', the closing track." Needs qualified the sound as "huge, sometimes awe-inspiring" and commenting that drummer Morris created "one of the best drum sounds I've ever heard – the deep echo and floor-shuddering mix accentuating his muted Glitter Band stomp".[4]

Several journalists from NME also praised the record. Nick Kent first stated that the band sounded "like some unique hybrid of The Velvet Underground mated with much of the ingenuity of Tago Mago-era Can." He then focused his attention to the opening track and said: "'Pure' takes the sound to its ultimate juncture, leaving spaces that say as much as the notes being played. Certainly, the traditional three-piece sound has never been used in a more unorthodox fashion with such stunning results."[15] In December 1978, another critic from NME, Paul Morley, described the music on The Scream as "unlike anything in rock":

It is not, as some would say, chaotic – it is controlled. Each instrument operates within its own space, its own time, as if mocking the lines of other instruments. Known rock is inverted, leaving just traces of mimickry of rock's cliches – satire that often bursts with glorious justification into shaking celebration (as on "Helter Skelter"). It is easy to gain attention by doing something which is crudely obviously out of the ordinary, but the Banshees have avoided such futile superficialities: it is innovation, not revolution, not a destruction but new building. It has grown out of rock – Velvets, Station to Station, Bolan. And Siouxsie's staggering voice is dropped, clipped, snapped prominently above this audacious musical drama, emphasizing the dark colours and empty, naked moods.[16]

Writer Don Watson later pictured it in the NME as "something that whipped the past into a great whirlpool of noise, pulling the future down."[17]

Kurt Loder gave a very favourable review in Rolling Stone, remarking that The Scream was a "striking debut album"; its "sound, stark though fully realized (thanks partly to a most simpatico co-producer, Steve Lillywhite), is lent added intellectual dimension by a series of disturbingly ambiguous lyrical images".[11]

One year later, Record Mirror's Ronnie Gurr wrote about the album: "The Scream, a masterpiece that, for six months, I failed to recognise as such, was a harrowing listening experience."[18]